Blogs

January Metagame Analysis

Mon 18th Feb 2013 - 6:33pm

The meta game of Dota 2 is constantly changing and evolving. New play styles or builds catapult heroes into the top tiers while old favourites slowly fall out of fashion. In order to keep up with the competition it is important to be aware of these changes to the meta lest the other team pull out a hero or combo that you weren't prepared for.

So I present to you, humble readers, the current top four tiers of Dota 2 heroes along with their pick and ban frequencies. I don't go into a huge amount of detail here for brevity's sake but if you'd like more detail on any one particular hero or tier let me know in the comments and I can plan for future articles.

Please Note: For this article I used the statistics available on Dota Academy. I used data collected between January 1st 2013 and February 1st 2013. There is a little bit of a lull in tournament play in the moment so some of the heroes that are more popular with the Chinese scene are lower in the picks/bans than they might otherwise be (as the Chinese teams take a break for new years) but it still gives a good idea of what heroes are currently popular picks and bans.

Tier 1

Rank

Hero

Picks/Bans

Picks

Bans

1

111

35

76

2

101

57

44

3

100

60

40

4

98

19

79

5

96

45

51

6

93

65

28

7

86

17

69

8

86

37

49

9

84

45

39

10

77

54

23

Nyx reigns supreme. Spiked Carapace is an incredibly powerful spell (surely it's duration needs to scale with levels), and is being played as a versatile and survivable support. He can also roam and gank with the best of them. Dark Seer remains highly placed as well, his Wall and Vacuum combo still able to completely turn a team fight around. Batrider and Magnus and Undying remain popular first and second bans, showing teams still not wanting to have to deal with them. Lifestealer has really moved up in terms of picks and bans over the last few months. BKBs are a core item on almost every carry, so naturally the hero that comes with one built in (not to mention a very nice attack speed bonus) is appearing more and more in top level play. He also scales well in the mid game, which with shorter game times is becoming more and more important. His elevation to the rank of tier one is thanks to picks from several team, including: Na'Vi, mouz, Natural 9 and EG.

Tier 2

Rank

Hero

Picks/Bans

Picks

Bans

11

69

49

20

12

59

33

17

13

58

34

24

14

57

21

36

15

56

20

36

16

51

20

31

17

51

23

28

18

45

34

11

19

41

31

10

20

36

29

7

Some of the heroes in Tier 2 may move back Tier 1 once the Chinese teams come back from their New Years Break such as: Templar Assassin, Luna and Rubick. Rubick and Luna in particular are favoured heavily in the Eastern Scene at the moment (but since you read last weeks article, you already know that). Chen and Leshrac still see a lot of use despite push strats falling out of favour in recent times, but they are both solid support heroes that contribute a great deal in team fights. The fact they can demolish towers is just a bonus.

Tier 3

Rank

Hero

Picks/Bans

Picks

Bans

21

40

16

24

22

37

16

21

23

34

24

10

24

30

15

15

25

30

11

19

26

28

11

17

27

27

14

13

28

27

15

12

29

26

20

6

30

21

11

10

Tier 4

Rank

Hero

Picks/Bans

Picks

Bans

31

18

2

16

32

17

8

9

33

16

10

6

34

16

12

4

35

16

7

9

36

16

8

8

37

15

8

7

38

15

14

1

39

15

12

3

40

14

5

9

In Tier 4 carries that were must have picks for a team languish in ignominy. Faceless Void, Night Stalker and Anti Mage have all been the man about town, but this past month have been left to the side. Anti Mage saw some resurgence in popularity during the G League but is unlikely to ever be as popular as he was around TI1. Tidehunter has fallen quite low in picks and bans as well, as wombo combos and big team fights become less important when picking a team , in favour of a sleeker gank orientated line up. Night Stalker seems to fight right in to that, but is still only in Tier 4. This is because mid lane is now dominated by the likes of Queen of Pain, Batrider and Templar Assassin

Top 5 Pick/Ban Order

1st Ban

2nd Ban

1st Pick

2nd Pick

3rd Pick

3rd Ban

4th Ban

5th Ban

4th Pick

5th Pick

The early pick and ban phase is dominated by a handful of heroes. Wisp is a popular first ban or pick, as there are teams (such as our own Team Dignitas) that will dominate the map with this hero and a carry given the chance. Dark Seer has moved out of the top of the first and second ban phase (although he is still a popular ban) and is the top first pick. With big team fights becoming less important he is no longer quite as fearsome as in his golden years. Lifestealer is picked early, so teams aren't too worried right now about counter picks to him as there aren't really any hard counters right now. Keeper of the Light is a hugely popular hero despite a huge drop in usefulness in the end game, but his impact in the early laning phase is huge and is a great counterpush hero.

The second half of the ban pick phase shows more variation as teams begin to take shape and any gaps in the line up are filled. Windrunner is a popular fourth and fifth pick to round out with an off lane hero. Although Bounty Hunter is the more popular off lane hero, where he is picked is much more flexible. This area is hard to draw any conclusions from as there is so many variables on which heroes to ban out and which ones to round out a team with.

So that concludes my roundup of what's been going on this last month in the meta game. Were there surprises, or was it exactly what you expected? Either way hopefully this will help you in your own Dota endeavors, whether anticipating the other teams strategy in captains mode, planning a line up or just adding to your just knowing a bit more of whats going on whilst watching pro games. Hopefully it's been an enjoyable read, make sure to let me know what you think in the comments, and what you want to see next. Thanks for reading and until next week, happy gaming!

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Team Dignitas was formed in September 2003, after the merger of two excellent Battlefield 1942 teams. The new ‘Dignitas’ Battlefield team went on to be very successful and after attending CeBIT (2004) we held discussions with ABIT and within a few months we had secured our first sponsor.﻿ Read More